Seidel, Heinrich Alexander

Seidel, Heinrich Alexander a Lutheran theologian of Germany, was born Feb. 4, 1811, at Goldberg, in Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He studied at Rostock and Berlin, and in 1839, he was called to the pastorate at Berlin. In 1851 he was made pastor of St. Nicolaiin Schwerin, but bodily infirmities obliged him to retire in 1859 from the pastorate, and he died Jan. 30, 1861. Seidel is best known in German hymnology by his spiritual hymns, which he published in two collections, entitled Kreuz und Harfe (Schwerin and Rostock, 1839 and 1857). See Zuchold, Biblioth. Theolog. p. 1215; Koch, Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenliedes, 7, 294 sq. (B.P.)